About Belgica antarctica

Belgica antarctica, the Antarctic midge, is a species of flightless midge, endemic to the continent of Antarctica. At 2--6 mm (0.079--0.236 in) long, it is the largest purely terrestrial animal on the continent, as well as its only insect. It also has the smallest known insect genome as of 2014, with only 99 million base pairs of nucleotides (and about 13,500 genes) [1].

(Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.)

Picture credit: Tasteofcrayons Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (Image source)

Taxonomy ID 315563

Data source Kelley and Denlinger Labs

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